Alternative Investing Report - March 31, 2026

*as of 3/30; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50

Hong Kong’s art week culminated in last weekend’s major modern and contemporary art auctions, with sales by the three major auction houses bringing in nearly $165 million, above expectations and an 18% gain over last year’s totals. Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s achieved “white glove” sales, meaning every lot was sold. The Christie’s sale brought in $84 million, led by a $11.8 million sale of a Gerhard Richter painting. Sotheby’s totaled $70.3 million, highlight by the biggest sale of the weekend - $17.6 million for Joan Mitchell’s “La Grande Vallée VII.” Finally, Phillips brought in $11.3 million in sales, up 12% from last year.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Last year, Hong Kong’s art market hit a ten-year low with $715 million in total sales, so the strong auction results were a welcome development. They capped off a largely successful week that also included a better-than-expected Art Basel Hong Kong. These results also continue a good start to 2026 for the art market, though it remains to be seen if the positive momentum will carry over to Paris’ Spring Art Week coming in mid-April and New York’s Spring Art Week to follow in mid-May.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Orchard Global CEO Paul Horvath about investing in the U.S. v. Europe and current macroeconomic trends.

🍷 New wine record: A bottle of 1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti sold for $812,500, shattering the previous $558,000 record for the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. The sale was part of a three-day Acker auction that grossed $25 million in total.

📉 VCX comes back down: After hitting a high of $575 per share last week, the publicly traded Fundrise Innovation Fund dropped another 36% yesterday and is at $101 per share including after-hours trading, still five times higher than its last reported net asset value.

🏢 Industrial rents up: Nationally, industrial sector asking rents are up 5.5% year-over-year, with Atlanta, Columbus, and Philadelphia seeing the highest growth rates. With construction activity dropping, expect rents to continue on this trajectory in the near-term.

💵 Powell on private credit: The Federal Reserve chair said yesterday that he does not believe that a downturn in the private credit markets will spread to the wider financial system, though the Fed is monitoring the situation closely.

🪙 Strategy keeps buying: The original digital asset treasury (DAT) is the only one still accumulating, as it has added 45,000 Bitcoin in the past thirty days, while all other DATs combined have added only 1,000. Strategy’s stock is down 12% in the past five days, and 62% in the past six months.

🤖 Physical Intelligence raise: The two year-old robotics startup is reportedly looking to raise $1 billion at a $11 billion valuation, nearly double its latest valuation of $5.6 billion just four months ago.

For people who are looking for an isolated retreat, a tiny home on a small private island in Maine is on the market. Located in Waterboro, 40 minutes southwest of Portland, the 487-square-foot, 1-bedroom home is on a 3,920 square foot island and is accessible only by boat, or by snowmobile if the pond is frozen. The newly-renovated interior comes fully furnished, and could have a strong market as a vacation rental. The asking price is $685,000, for a fairly high price per square-foot for the home, though it’s less if you consider the price per square-foot for the entire island.